England's Marcus Trescothick is considering returning home from the tour of Pakistan after his father-in-law was injured falling off a ladder.

It is not known how serious the injury is, but it is enough for Trescothick, who stood in as captain in the first Test defeat at Multan, to give returning home some thought.

The loss of Trescothick would add to England's batting problems as they wait on the fitness of captain Michael Vaughan ahead of the second Test in Faisalabad on Sunday.

Vaughan was forced to miss the Multan match after twisting his knee in the final warm-up game.

England are also likely to lose Andrew Strauss for the third Test as the opener intends to fly home for the birth of his first child.

England have already brought in cover by calling up Essex's Alastair Cook.

Losing Vaughan and Trescothick for the second Test would rob England of their two most senior batsmen and leave them needing to find yet another captain.

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff or left-arm spinner Ashley Giles would probably be seen as the best options.

Strauss is widely regarded as a future skipper but his likely absence for the third Test would probably preclude him, otherwise England could go through a three-match series with three different captains.

Should Trescothick also miss the third Test in Lahore, the England selectors would also have to consider summoning further cover.

Apart from Cook, England's only other batting option is wicketkeeper Matthew Prior.

And with the team featuring a novice middle order of Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen, they are already light on experience.

Trescothick , meanwhile, has continued to support Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff despite the middle-order pair's failure to produce as England fell to a 22-run defeat yesterday.

The tourists needed some ballast from Flintoff and Pietersen to see them home after losing three wickets for as many runs following a second-wicket stand of 57 between Ian Bell and Strauss.

The heavyweight pair both made it into double figures but little further before falling to attempted big shots when more caution might have served better.

Trescothick nonetheless backed them unequivocally to continue batting how they see fit.

'It's the reason why they have become the players they are. Nine times out of 10 that will come off and win us games, whereas more often before we might have drawn or lost games,' he said.

'There is no reason for them to curb anything. They are very instinctive players; they see the ball and hit it hard. It's just not come off this time.'

England will need some special performances from Flintoff, Pietersen and others if they are to fight their way back into a three-match series which was always going to be a stern test of their credentials, even before they went one behind.

'One thing we can always fall back on is our team spirit and our fight, and that won't change throughout the whole trip,' Trescothick promised.

'We may have bad sessions, even bad days, on the pitch - but when we walk off we stick together and that is true after Multan.'